The Partees Keep It All in The Family

Passing the torch is often a common practice in the world of insurance.

Such is the case with California’s Partee Insurance that offers commercial, personal lines, along with a health and lines department, located in Covina.

Owner Wayne Partee, who went to work for his father T.R. back in 1970, has a familiar employee in the office among the 16 employees. His daughter Lou sells commercial lines, including property, liability and workers’ compensation.

“I really like the contact with the people,” Lou commented. “I actually left here for my first pregnancy, and when I decided to go back into insurance, I actually didn’t come back here because I didn’t want to be the boss’ daughter. So, I made my way up with different jobs, starting as someone’s receptionist, but he (Wayne) started calling me and asking me to come back.

“I think the relationship with him has been positive. Since he’s my dad, I’m not as offended as someone might be from a boss who you have no idea where they’re coming from.”

The two have had to put their heads together often in the last year to keep up with today’s market conditions.

“It has been extremely difficult,” Lou said. “As insurance people we understand what’s happening, but trying to talk to our insureds is very difficult. I think you’ll see the hard market level in about a year. At the end of two, we might see it drop a little. We’ve contacted marketing people to see what everyone wants so we’re not spinning our wheels. As far as our insureds, we send out a quarterly newsletter and a lot of our articles are actually on what is happening in the market, so they’re a little more prepared. The newsletter helps build the relationship and keep them.”

When they’re not involved at work, the two can be found offering their time to a variety of functions for Young Agents and IBA. Lou serves as secretary of the board (San Gabriel Valley) and Wayne is the president. Wayne, who was the 5th Chair for YBAC (then called YAC) was also recently nominated to the Board of Directors for IBA West State association.

“At first, I didn’t know what the IBA was,” Lou said. “Having been involved has made my hold on insurance stronger. The contacts and networking have been valuable. Even though someone might be my competitor down the street, because we’re involved in IBA together and have gotten to know each other, I can call them for advice and not have to worry they’re going to steal my insureds. We, even within the IBA West, refer business to each other because we know what everybody does.” Lou got involved in Young Agents in 1999 and 23 years after Wayne was a Chair, Lou is the very first Legacy Chair in 2002-2003.

When asked how women have prospered in the business, Lou noted it is still mostly men dominating the industry.

“When I go to a function or I’m working on something, I’m surrounded by men. When I go out to sell a commercial policy, it is men I’m working with. I think women have made significant inroads. I think we’ve more than proved ourselves.”

As for the coming years, Lou notes, “I just can’t walk up the ladder because of who I am, I have to prove it to other people.”

When asked if she fears that Partee could be bought up by a larger company, Lou notes, “It is a fear. I see where big companies and banks are buying them up, but I honestly believe like the Internet, there are still going to be a very large amount of people who don’t want to deal with that cold environment. It is just a matter of which one of us survives. The future of insurance that is my generation is being able to splice between being the contact person for the public and using technology. While our parents and our bosses are kind of still digging their heals in but are dabbling in it, we have to figure out a way to touch our generation with it [technology], but yet still remain personalized.”

As Lou continues to grow in her role with the company and learn from her dad, Wayne said it has been a good experience for him too.

“The best benefit is [that] I know her personally,” Wayne said. “It is a lot of fun to watch your kids grow up and succeed, and it is fun to have them follow in the same industry that I followed my father into. It’s tough because there is a double standard. No matter what she does, she gets half the credit. If she does anything wrong, she gets twice the blame.”

When asked how the business is growing, Wayne said things appear in line.

“We’re right on target for our goals in fact we should exceed them. We’re writing a lot of new business. We’re not really a price-seller, we’re more of a solution-oriented seller. What we’ve seen is that every account is being shopped to every company, either by the producer who has it or the guy trying to get it. It is backing the market up to the point where the companies are almost incapable of picking and choosing what they want to work on. They’re getting buried.”

Wayne notes the biggest change he’s seen in several decades in the business is on the technological side.

“The fastest change was the fax machine. You were no longer able to deal in a few days—you had to deal today. It became immediate service. Now with computers, they became so prevalent. The e-mail is right there on your desk now. Those are the things I’ve seen. Then I think about the cell phone. I have that with me 14 or 15 hours a day.”

As for the future of the industry, Wayne said those employed in it have some work to do.

“I think the industry right now is a little tarnished, because we’ve done that typical thing we do every cycle. We cut the rates so low they’re unrealistic, then we jack them up not to the level to make the future profitable, but the companies always get that greed factor where they want it all back. I realize 9/11 was a tremendous tragedy, but the reinsurers are not going to stop at this point and time. They want to be made whole. They don’t just want to be making profits for the future, and that doesn’t set well with the public. I think the thing that scares us the most as insurance agents, for the last six or seven years, I haven’t seen a true growth in business on the books. Now that we’re starting to see growth, the next place the company goes is that you’re making way too much, we ought to put a cap on them.”

And asked what the future holds for IBA, Wayne pointed out that adapting to the changes and taking a stand are both important considerations.

“We just have to realize how to position it [IBA] so that more agents realize the value of it and not just the services it offers, but to join in one voice to fight some of the legislation and the problems we face.”